Little Simz is an emcee from London who made a splash in 2015 and 2016 when she released her first two albums, A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons and Stillness in Wonderland. Now, after touring and guesting on a few albums, she comes back with her third full-length album, Grey Area.

There’s something to be said for reaching the third album in your career, and the growth that comes with it. While Little Simz already demonstrated a lot of skill and vision on her first two albums, there’s a certain energy and confidence that hits you on the opening seconds of Grey Area that just hints that she’s on the verge of something special. As you work your way through the rest of the album, it becomes clear that we need to stop talking about Little Simz as an artist with promise or potential, and simply talk about her as one of the best emcees making music today. For this album, Little Simz pairs up with producer Inflo. You might not be familiar with the name, but Inflo has worked with everyone from Brit-pop band The Kooks to Danger Mouse to contributing to the soundtrack for The Get Down. In working with Little Simz, he’s able to provide her with some interesting elements that she’s not worked with before. On the opening track, “Offence,” Inflo brings in this symphonic Blaxploitation score influence that is reminiscent of an Adrian Younge/Ghostface collaboration, except you get the power of Little Simz spitting really fast and claiming all the space for herself before getting to the chorus, where she boldly declares, “You’re not listening! I said it with my chest and I don’t care who I offend!” As we continue through the rest of the album, we get pieces of soul, garage rock, disco, R&B, blues, classical, gospel, and beyond, but focused in such a way that everything feels in conversation and flows perfectly from start to finish. Of course, what makes this album especially great is the common thread of Little Simz on the mic and what she does with it. She has a great flow with great annunciation and rhythmic interplay, but what takes it over the top is the combination of her shit-talking with brilliant wordplay and confidence, her storytelling, and her moments of vulnerability and personal confession. This is an album that can have her sounding menacing and coming for blood on a track like “Venom,” but just a few tracks later she’s pouring her heart out on tracks like “Pressure” and “Therapy.” She’s really come into her own on this album, and she gives her best performance to date.

Grey Area is one of those albums that felt special and familiar from the moment I pressed play, and it just got better with each listen. Little Simz found a great collaborator in Inflo, and together they’ve made one of the best albums of 2019.